Jose Mourinho has said injury problems are mounting at Tottenham, but was reluctant to reveal who will miss Thursday's Premier League game against Liverpool.
Spurs host the Reds amid an eight-match unbeaten run, but have slipped to sixth place in the Premier League table, one point behind their opponents - they had occupied the top two spots prior to the reverse fixture at Anfield.
A win for either side could reignite their title ambitions, and while Liverpool's injury struggles have been well documented, Mourinho said that Spurs are secretly struggling too.
When asked whether full-backs Matt Doherty and Ben Davies were still unavailable for Thursday's game, he lethargically replied: "Yeah, and we have more problems that I'm not going to share. You'll have to wait until tomorrow but we have a little bit more problems than that."
He added that, despite Liverpool's fitness concerns and poor form, it is never an opportune time to play them.
"No," he said when asked if it was an advantage to play Liverpool now. "I don't feel that at all. [To] play Liverpool is [to] play Liverpool, independent of all the context, independent of everything. I don't feel it is an advantage, I don't feel it is a disadvantage, simple."
Mourinho did admit that he feels sympathetic towards Liverpool's problem at the back, noting that players like Virgil van Dijk are irreplaceable, comparing the situation to when Spurs had to play without Harry Kane and Son Heung-min last season.
"Well, we played last season half of the season without any attacking players," he added. "We had a period where we played Lucas every minute of every match, [at] striker, winger, winger, striker. We lost Son, we lost Kane, we lost Bergwijn. We lost everybody.
"How did we manage? Miracles? We cannot do it. So to make strikers from right-backs or left-backs or goalkeepers - Joe Hart, can he play striker because he's very tall and strong? You cannot make miracles. You have to try and compensate with what you have.
"When you speak about Van Dijk, you cannot replace [him]. There are some players that you cannot replace. It's like when Harry Kane was injured, you cannot replace Harry Kane, you cannot replace Van Dijk."
Mourinho also said he does not expect Dele Alli to leave the club before the end of the transfer window, though couldn't rule out a departure for sure.
"I expect [him to still be here],” he said. “I'm saying that since the beginning of the transfer window. I was not expecting anyone to leave, I was not expecting anyone to come.
“Until now, January 27, we're almost in the end. I don't believe anything is going to happen but it's open still. "
Source: 90min
